Kingaroy Shire was first settled by Europeans in 1843 when squatter and explorer Henry Stuart Russell made a selection at Burrandowan west of present-day Kingaroy.
He was followed into the area in 1846 by the haly brothers(who selected Taabinga station)
and Simon Scott(who settled at(Taromeo)
The Halys and Scott brought the first flocks of sheep to the region
These were soon overtaken by dairying sawmilling and grain cropping.
In 1878 or 1879, the general area where Kingaroy now stands was selected by the Markwell brothers
James Markwell called his selection Kingaroy Paddock using a corruption of the local Wakka Wakka aboriginal people's word for "red ant" (Kingaroori) because red ants were so prevalent in the area
A corner post of his selection was located on what is now modern-day Haly Street in central Kingaroy.
The Birth of Kingaroy
The new railway line arrived in Kingaroy in 1904 and Daniel Carroll built the Carrollee Hotel that same year to service the railhead, This hotel is still trading today.
A store, four more hotels and a large number of houses followed over the next few years and Kingaroy soon began to grow
But as the new township expanded around the fountain of prosperity that the railhead brought to the district Taabinga Village slowly went into irreversible decline.
In 1907 Taabinga had two hotels, a fancy goods store, a butcher, post office, a photographer and a sawmill. But by 1910 records show that blocks of land in Taabinga Village were being forfeited and demand for property as practically nil.
The decimation of Australian rural populations caused by World War I proved to be the final blow to the village
Taabinga Homestead and a few buildings were converted to a wonderful restaurant and craft shop.